QuickBooks 2013 Has Arrived! Here is What To Expect

QuickBooks 2013 is here! QuickBooks 2013 contains a number of new features, as well as improvements to existing ones. This article will list the major changes that I’m aware of, with details to come in future articles.

PLEASE NOTE that much of this is based on information from an early release candidate of QuickBooks 2013 – it is possible that some features may vary from what is described here. Also, this applies strictly to the U.S. editions of QuickBooks in the Windows environment. The UK and Canadian versions may include some of these features.

Keep your eye on the QuickBooks and Beyond blog over the next few weeks as I release a series of articles that go into more detail on the new and improved features. This article is a summary of the new features that I’m aware of at this time – I’ll go into each feature IN DEPTH in upcoming articles.

This article was updated on 9/24/2012

Changes in the User Interface

These are going to be the changes that everyone will notice right away, and that will generate the most discussion (and complaints?). There are major changes in the visual design of the program, and how you navigate. I like many elements of this change but there are some details that I’m not entirely happy with.

The new visual design overhaul changes the fonts, spacing and colors in just about every portion of the program. This is a more “modern” appearance, and there has been a lot of work done to try to standardize the look and feel throughout QuickBooks. This addresses a concern that I’ve had for the past few years, where I felt that there were at least three different “visual styles” used in different places of the program as Intuit added new features.

A major new addition is the left icon bar for navigation. Instead of a top icon bar that we are used to, major navigation features have been moved to the left side of the screen. If you have a lower resolution monitor you may find that this takes up a lot of space. I also found that it was a bit disconcerting to switch to this from older versions of QuickBooks, at least at first. Note, though, that you have the option of moving this back to the top.

Ribbons on transaction windows – Thirteen transaction windows will have a new “ribbon” interface at the top. If you are using Microsoft Word 2010 (for example), you are familiar with the “ribbon” interface. This helps gather together many features that relate to these transaction windows into one easy to use place.

Here’s a quick look, showing many of the new elements (click on the screen shot for a larger view). I will have several articles on these changes coming up soon.

Improved Centers

QuickBooks has a number of Centers, like the Customer Center, and several of these have been improved in a number of ways. I like many of the changes here.

Tabs have been added so that you can quickly access transactions, contacts, to-do’s and notes easily (rather than buttons at various spots).

Notes have been changed so that you can have multiple notes per record, instead of just one.

The edit window for the records in these Centers have been updated with a number of visual improvements, as well as the ability to choose (to a degree) which fields show. You have 24 “contact” related field labels, you can choose which 8 to show.

Note that the Toggle feature in QuickBooks Accountant now has the option to toggle to the Bookkeeper edition, which we didn’t have in QuickBooks 2012. That is a helpful addition.

QuickBooks Statement Writer should now be compatible with 64 bit versions of Microsoft Excel. I haven’t tried this myself at this point. In any case, in my opinion, you shouldn’t be using the 64 bit version of Microsoft Excel anyways.

Another new feature in QuickBooks Statement Writer is a new “ribbon” interface when you open your document in Excel, much easier to use than before.

Client Data Review gets a few changes as well:

Change Name Type is a feature that lets you easily convert entries in the other names list to be customers, vendors or employees.

Write off invoices now generates a credit memo instead of discounting the invoice – a nice (and important) change.

QuickBooks Enterprise

Continuing the theme of the last year or so, there are a number of improvements that are available only in QuickBooks Enterprise. Intuit is making the distinction between the Pro/Premier line and the Enterprise line larger.

Larger List Limits: Many lists in QuickBooks have limits. This release of QuickBooks Enterprise is expanding a number of these limits.

Chart of Accounts: Expands from 10,000 to 100,000.

Classes: Expands from 10,000 to 100,000.

Customer Types: Expands from 10,000 to 100,000.

Vendor Types: Expands from 10,000 to 100,000.

Memorized Transactions: Expands from 29,000 to 50,000.

To Do’s: Expands from 10,000 to 100,000.

Customer Messages: Expands from 10,000 to 100,000.

Items in a Group or Sales Tax Group item: Expands from 20 to 50. Note that this limit is expanded in Pro and Premier as well.

Sites: Expands from 200 to 1,000,000.

Available in Advanced Inventory

The Advanced Inventory feature is only available if you purchase an annual support contract AND pay an additional fee each year. These features are not found in Enterprise without the additional fee. In the past this is where we have found multiple locations, FIFO costing, serial numbers and lot tracking. Here’s a list of what has been added this year, with details coming up in future articles:

Barcode scanning: The ability to print barcodes and to enter data using a barcode scanner. A very good start, which I hope they well expand upon. I just wish this wasn’t limited to Advanced Inventory subscribers. See my detailed article on this at: http://www.sleeter.com/blog/2012/09/quickbooks-2013-barcode/

Bin location tracking: An extension of the multiple location feature that we’ve had for a few years. In the past, you could have up to 200 “sites” for your inventory. This year another level has been added, the ability to define locations or bins within each site. This will be very helpful to people who are relying on this feature. The limit on the number of sites has been improved from 200 to 1,000,000 (this includes the location/bins, which are essentially “sub sites”). See my detailed article at: http://www.sleeter.com/blog/2012/09/quickbooks-2013-bin-locations-2/

Improving the Upgrade Experience

Do you know the difference between an upgrade and an update? The simplest answer is “money”, but I’m being a bit silly. If you move from one year of product to the next, such as moving from “QuickBooks Pro 2012” to “QuickBooks Pro 2013”, that is an upgrade. If you move from one product to another, such as from QuickBooks Pro to QuickBooks Premier, that is an upgrade. If you have a product and get a revision that fixes bugs or adds a feature, such as moving from QuickBooks Pro 2012 R1 to QuickBooks Pro 2012 R3, that is an update. In general, updates are free, but upgrades will cost you something.

So, we’re talking about upgrades, and Intuit wants to improve the experience.

First time use guidance for upgraders: If you are upgrading an existing QuickBooks file you’ll see some “overlays” that highlight the changes in the program. The goal is to orientate upgraders quickly so any disruption is minimalized. Surprising at first, but it does help point out the changes.

Preferences

I’ll explain these in more detail later on, but here’s some preferences that have been added, just to tease you:

Mark All Time as Billable.

Mark All Expenses as Billable.

Item Description on Reports.

I Wonder About…

Even though I’ve been looking at QuickBooks 2013 for awhile, there are still questions that I haven’t gotten an answer to. There probably should be a longer list of questions, but here is what comes to mind at this point:

What about add-on programs using the SDK and other interfaces? There are a number of changes in the database here (multiple notes, new fields, some things rearranged), so how will this affect add-on programs? Intuit typically is slow in getting out new features to their programming interfaces (sometimes years, sometimes never), and I don’t know where that stands with the 2013 product. Some people rely on SDK based programs (and to Intuit App Center programs to a lesser degree) to get information in and out of QuickBooks. How will these changes affect these other programs? How long will it be before the programming interfaces are updated to let add-on developers get to this data? I believe that at least SOME of this new information will be available to add-on developers fairly soon, but will ALL info be included?

What about bug fixes? New features are nice, the user interface change is interesting, but what about fixing the known bugs in QuickBooks? I know that some have been addressed, but will Intuit tell us about these fixes? I’d like to know. I keep asking, and asking, and… Well, depending on your definition of bug, I’m starting to find SOME fixes, but I’m sure that there are more than what I’ve found.

When Is It Available

My understanding is that:

ProAdvisors with currently active accounts can download their version starting today, through the download software section of your ProAdvisor web account (if you don’t see it now, wait until later in the day, it might not be available first thing).

Online Sales for everyone else will be able to purchase QuickBooks 2013 through the Intuit website starting approximately September 24th.

You should start seeing copies of QuickBooks in retail stores at some point in October.

Product Price Changes?

Pricing is always a volatile subject, and for some QuickBooks products there are always ways to get a discounted price somewhere.

ProAdvisors – check your ProAdvisor account to see what the latest price is for you.

Updated 9/24/2012: The Advanced Inventory option price will increase also. There are two factors – the annual fee for the option, and the annual fee for the Full Service Plan that you are required to purchase for Advanced Inventory. The annual price for Advanced Inventory will increase by $100 to $799 for existing users. It will increase by $300 to $999 for new customers. In addition, the Full Service Plan increases by $100 for a 5 user plan, $150 for a 10 user plan, and $400 for a 30 user plan.

These are the prices that I expect to see if you go to the Intuit sales websites. However, I generally recommend that you shop around.

Often you’ll see “loss leader” pricing for Pro, and sometimes Premier, from the mass-market retailers, perhaps a few months later than the release date.

If you are upgrading an existing installation, Intuit will often have an “upgrade discount” on their website, although sometimes the links are not obvious.

Many ProAdvisors will offer a discount if you purchase direct from them.

You can get a 20% discount on QuickBooks Pro and Premier by ordering through The Sleeter Group.

I also recommend that you do not purchase QuickBooks through eBay unless you know the seller very well. Sometimes you’ll see a great price there but then you find that it is an “opened” or already registered product that you won’t be able to register on your system. Be careful!

For those of you who have purchased a 2012 version of QuickBooks directly from Intuit in the last 60 days you should be able to call the Intuit sales staff to get a free upgrade to the 2013 version.

How About QuickBooks for Mac?

I don’t work with the Mac version myself, so here is the list of what you should see added to QuickBooks for Mac 2013 that I pulled from the Intuit press release:

Data Import: Populate contacts and products or services bought or sold by importing contacts automatically from the Address Book, or by copying and pasting contact or item information from spreadsheets. Data Import speeds up and simplifies the process of getting key information into QuickBooks.

Improved New User Experience: Learn how to use QuickBooks fast. Helpful tutorials and tips, including video how-to’s, offer in-product guidance when the user needs it.

Attached Documents: Small business owners will have the information they need right at their fingertips with the new Document Attachments feature, which attaches contracts, proposals, receipts and more to related records for easy reference.

Batch Invoicing: Streamlines the process of invoicing multiple customers for the same service by creating a template and invoicing all customers simultaneously.

Intuit PaymentNetwork: Enables small businesses to get paid faster. It provides a way for a small business’s customers to instantly pay their invoices electronically. Payments easily sync with QuickBooks.

My Conclusion

As we see each year, there are improvements and new features scattered about. A lot of these changes are things that I’ve seen people asking for. Some of them are going to be a bit controversial for upgraders because, dang it, we just got used to working one way and now they are changing things. Then, of course, there will be the long list of features that people have been asking for but that still aren’t here.

In a very general sense, I have a few overall comments at this point (I’ll be going into a lot more detail in upcoming articles on specific features):

I like a lot of what they are trying to do with the user interface change, but I’m not entirely happy with a number of the details. This is where there will be a lot of complaining from upgraders. I do have hopes that some of these issues will be resolved in an early update release.

There are some very nice new features, but I am sure that people will say “why did you pick THESE features instead of others we’ve been asking for”? That happens every year – what is important to me might not be important to you. I really like, for example, the new barcode feature. But if you don’t want barcodes, and you aren’t using Enterprise with Advanced Inventory, this isn’t an important feature to you.

I don’t know what bugs they fixed, so I can’t say if there has been a real emphasis on solving those kinds of problems. The jury is still out on this.

I like the direction they are going with a number of the improvements, but at this moment I’m recommending that you don’t use the R1 release for your critical business processes. There are a lot of issues to work out. This should come as no surprise to people who’ve been reading my articles each year, it is the same EVERY year. R1 is almost by definition buggy. Look at QuickBooks 2013, but wait for a couple of revisions before you jump in to this, if you can.

Stay tuned! Over the next few weeks I’ll be publishing detailed, in-depth articles on all of these features, and more that I didn’t squeeze into this article. Let me know which features you are the most interested in, so that I can publish those articles first!

About the author

Charlie Russell

Charlie Russell is the founder of CCRSoftware. He's been involved with the small business software industry since the mid 70's, and remembers releasing his first commercial accounting software product when you had a one-floppy disk drive system, loading the program from one floppy and then replacing that with the other floppy to hold the data. He has a special interest in inventory and manufacturing software for small businesses. Charlie is a Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor with additional certifications for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Enterprise. He also is a Xero Certified Partner. Visit his CCRSoftware web site for information about his QuickBooks add-on products. Charlie can be reached at [email protected]

I teach QB and I have a bigger issue about new upgrades. Why do we have a new QB release every year? Every 2-3 years will work so much better. Every year we have to have new text books, new installs, new computers and new problems.
Jyoti

Ken, it is more of an issue for those of us who support clients using QuickBooks, who teach QuickBooks courses, or who write about the product.

From the end user standpoint if you don’t want to get the new features each year, you are perfectly fine upgrading only every three years (of course, some people will complain about how Intuit tends to “force” them to upgrade every three years).

I support accountants and clients as well as write training every year. For us, it is an advantage to have the new programs each year, as we have additional income with each new model. :c) (It makes for a busy October through December though)

Charlie – you have done your outstanding job of providing a great overview of new features, as the first in what I am sure will be a long list of blogs covering each of the major areas of change, with a few lesser areas thrown in for good measure.

We all appreciate how much work you go to in bring us in-depth presentations of ‘what’s new’, whether it be ‘the good, the bad, or the ugly’ in the latest products.

[…] The Sleeter Group’s QuickBooks and Beyond Blog: A thorough overview of the new major features in QuickBooks 2013 can be found here. What I really like about this blog as there is an active community that posts comments to the articles on this blog including Intuit representatives. In fact Woody Adams of Intuit provided a summary of the upcoming bug fixes. You can find this article here. […]

Patti, at the time that I’m writing this I don’t believe that Intuit has published this information. I expect it will be available on their web site around September 24th, when they update the website to take orders.

Chart of Accounts: Expands from 10,000 to 100,000.
Classes: Expands from 10,000 to 100,000.
Customer Types: Expands from 10,000 to 100,000.
Vendor Types: Expands from 10,000 to 100,000.
Memorized Transactions: Expands from 29,000 to 50,000.
To Do’s: Expands from 10,000 to 100,000.
Customer Messages: Expands from 10,000 to 100,000.
Items in a Group or Sales Tax Group item: Expands from 20 to 50. Note that this limit is expanded in Pro and Premier as well.
Sites: Expands from 200 to 1,000,000.

To Do’s – sure, expand that, mainly because you can’t easily delete old ones, so they build up. That is assuming that you use this feature heavily (I don’t).

Memorized Transactions – well, sure, because if you DELETE old ones you can cause database corruption. So if you heavily use this and have a file that gets old, this could be helpful. Although that does seem like a lot.

Other expansions? I don’t know of a compelling reason for this, but maybe it is something that people have asked for. It is also possible that this is just a generic update of some limits in the database, where all tables of a certain type just get changed to not have these kinds of limits. Speculation on my part.

I also think that some of these expansions are maybe just a side effect of others (100,000 in COA or 100,000 Classes). I once ran into a client with a COA of 2,000 accounts which is already ridiculous.

I’m sure that in the end I will get used to 2013 cause I have no choice other than adaptation. The functionality in some new menus is really good but for me the side bar and the B/W icon bar aren’t, and the homepage is really awful. I remember that some early 2000’s QB editions had a sidebar similar to this one. I do hope that new releases will take care of some of the issues. Life is colorful, QB was colorful…in my mind it still doesn’t make any sense.

I immediately checked the budget reports in 2013 and am excited to report that a long-standing problem has been fixed. In the past, QB would display a blank space in the budget column when you had actual activity in an account that was not budgeted. The difference column would also be blank – but the columns would total as if there was an amount in the difference column. The reports did not foot in the difference column, though the totals were correct. Now, an unbudgetd account displays a zero budget, the difference amount is correctly calculated, and the columns foot. This correction alone is reason enough to upgrade to 2013 for my nonprofit clients.

Charlie, there has been discussion in various places about whether a recently purchased copy of QuickBooks 2012 will earn a free upgrade to the 2013 software. The question is whether it has to be purchased directly from Intuit or not – and others are saying a purchase anywhere will qualify, even if it is at a discounted price from Staples.

Charlie… I just found out that we not only lost the colored icon bar, but we also lost the “theme” colors. (the ability to change the desktop view and change background colors). I may have missed seeing that posted – if not, users should be aware of it. If they rely on colors to differentiate users/data files, that function is gone.

Almost ALL of my clients rely on the theme colors for ease of vision, all of the multi-user clients rely on this for differentiating the users, many rely on them to differentiate between companies they own. Many of them have been asking for more “theme” colors. All of my clients rely on the colored symbols on the icon bar.

It is interesting that adobe has also taken this gray on gray approach. Several of my fine art and graphic design clients are choosing not to upgrade that software for the same reasons. They can’t see/find the commands needed.

It would be nice to get a ‘discussion’ that could get to Intuit to bring back these functions. We needed a lot of the new options. We did not need a change in the interface that takes away easy/recognizable options.

I know there are multiple meetings at Intuit this week on this topic – and I have been invited to participate in one. Perhaps if enough of us speak out and have a solid forum of people (such as this group, and other users/advisors)we might get them to listen.

Thank you for your information and posts. Many of us have come to rely on the clarity you give.

Probably, but no guarantee. You should, if the file is clean. Lots of ways to address it, you may want to find a ProAdvisor who can help you. THe simplest approach is to make a backup of the file FIRST, then try opening it with QB 2013, see what happens. You may be lucky. If not, then you may want to get some help.

I have several clients who use multiple QB files, who would like to open more than one at a time (show on different screens). Is this something QuickBooks is working on? Currently, we use two computers so that we can switch between the files.

I have had a tumultuous last 6 months and haven’t been able to attend any of the webinars on “What’s New for QB 2013″. I am just beginning my research on it. I noticed in one of the reviews it shows the new interface on the invoicing and customer area. Most is really nice, but I was wondering where the “Job Info” tab went to? Is that no longer available in 2013? I have a client that currently uses that feature.

Deborah, it is still there when you edit a customer. Note that it only shows up if you have a customer with no jobs – OR in a job. If you have a customer who has jobs, the customer record itself won’t have the job tab.

Charlie, we are looking to update our QB to the new 2013 version. We also want to add an accounting payroll/taxes program. We operate on MAC, and have had a number of issues with QB shutting down on us several times a day. However, too late to change now. Can you give me any advice regarding what is available for us to make this upgrade?

Suzie, I’m not sure what you are looking for. You don’t mention what year of QuickBooks you have. If you are looking to upgrade from an older version of QB for Mac to the current version of QB for Mac, you should just need to purchase the new program and it will convert your older file (depending on how old, perhaps). However, I’ll admit that I don’t work with the Mac versions at all. You may want to find a local ProAdvisor who has experience with the Mac version.

Hello, Charlie: It seems that in order to send invoices, you must use a mail client and we have been using web-based mail. Is it possible to export invoices into Google mail? I only maintain a dedicated mail client exclusively for QuickBooks invoicing and it slows the process down considerably. Thanks.

I didn’t catch that you were talking about the Mac version. I don’t see webmail as being listed in the 2013 features that were added, but I’ll admit that I don’t work with the Mac version so I’m not a good source for info on that. You may check with the Intuit Community Forums (make sure you select a Mac forum).

No changes there. Are you asking about sorting the items in the statement by the invoice (or whatever) date? If that is the issue, please contact me via the email in my author profile so we can talk about a possible option.

Every year Quickbooks changes a few fonts and color schemes and maybe adds one functional change that is useful. For that they ask for (in australia) around $800 (premier version). How do they get away with it?

Dene, keep in mind that in Australia you aren’t dealing with Intuit, you are dealing with Reckon. They had a special deal where they got some of the code from Intuit and then they repackage it. The pricing, the feature set, is all under Reckon’s control. There are BIG differences between the US/Canadian/UK version and the Reckon-Australian version. Don’t blame Intuit for what Reckon does. Also, as I understand it, the arrangement between Reckon and Intuit is dissolving (or has dissolved), so I’m not sure what the future for the desktop product is in Australia.

Hi Charlie, I know this is not exactly a upgrade question but in a manner it is. I do business consulting for small business’s. There is a client that has a problem with Quickbooks 2013. They are a new business and have 3 employees and the manager is the owner as well. The client told us that they are only being allowed to have 3 employees that they can pay through Quickbooks payroll system without signing up for intuit payroll subscription. They have 3 employees now and the owner/manager is having to take draws rather than be considered as an employee because of this. I am not aware of what they can do to solve this issue because the shoe string they are on right now is so thin they can not afford to pay for any additional payroll service and they have the experience to do their own payroll. Do you have any advice?

If you do not buy the Enterprise service contract, I now know you can not get the upgraded inventory feature. So what level of QuickBooks do you really have? Where I work we have QuickBooks Enterprise for Contractors 2012, but we did not purchase the yearly fee package. I am trying to understand what features I will not have.

Hi Charlie,
On the new Sales by Item Summary reports, the items have the description conjoined with the item number, making it rather difficult to do simple analysis in Excel. Is there a new function I need to modify in these reports in QB 2013 to have the reports produced with just the item number?